Final Straw
by Lily Brennan
Summary: AU. Forced into a life of slavery under the tyrannical rule of the universes cruelest villain, two people find something greater than themselves to fight for. BV. R
1. Chapter 1

Final Straw

"This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same."

The cloaked figure crept stealthily over the moonlit rooftop, sliding through the shadows without sound. He paused, perched on the edge of a parapet, and his keen eyes spotted the dark window across the street where his target waited; unaware that this would be her last night on the earth. Unseen in the darkness, his eyes narrowed, thought the rest of his pale face remained a hardened mask of unfeeling stone.

He leapt off the parapet, his cloak a billowing shield in the case that a random passerby might look up, so they would see only the starless night so common in the grubby downtown sector of the industrious city. Grasping the edge of her windowsill with one strong hand, he took something from behind his ear and put it to the pane of glass. A red light blinked on the small, round piece of plastic, and then there was a quiet electric hum before it dropped four stories to the ground below, no longer attached to the vaporized glass.

He hoisted himself through the now empty window frame, slipping quietly into his target's apartment. He quickly came out from behind her curtains. They were white… the color of purity and innocence and angels…

The color of everything he despised.

The color of everything he wasn't.

With a growl, he tore his thoughts from the pointless path they had taken, and turned them once again entirely on the task at hand. A layout of the small apartment had accompanied his orders, along with vital stats on the target, and a few need-to-knows about the area. Lines converged and images flashed in his mind as he calculated exactly where he was and where he needed to go from there.

The living room; watch for the wires stretched across the hallway. If she hears something, it's all over. Bedroom is down the hall, door to the right. She sleeps with it open. Easy in, easy out. Do the job. Do it right.

He could hear the words spewing from his informant's disgusting green lips, as she held the file in her bony hands.

"Do it right and maybe Ambrose will let you live long enough to slaughter another helpless weakling."

He hated it, but he couldn't stop. He had no choice anymore. He was in too deep.

He could hear the slow, even breathing of his target as he approached the bedroom door, and felt a primal sort of rush at the power he held in that moment. The door was opened, as the file had said it would be, and he could see a body lying peacefully on a bed, under a thick, ancient looking bedspread. He crept in to stand next to the person.

A woman.

He was almost surprised at that. Females, especially from that planet, were rarely a big enough threat to the tyrant to require any form of recognition. What had she done? He wondered for a moment, and then decided that it didn't really matter. He raised his hand, a glowing ball of light appearing above his palm and growing exponentially bigger. He stared at it, face unfeeling.

_This_ was his job.

_This_ was what he was good at.

His eyes traveled to the face of the woman, now softly illuminated by the sphere of power that would soon be used to end her life. She was beautiful. Her skin was glowing porcelain, her features were arranged perfectly, and she her face held the most ethereally peaceful expression that he had ever seen. It was a shame she had to die.

He aimed the ball of light and prepared to complete his mission.

DISCLAIMER: This counts for this chapter and those hereafter; None of the characters belong to me, and I definitely don't own DBZ. If I did, this story wouldn't be here, as I'd be too busy rolling in my oodles of money to write it.


	2. Valley of Unrest Part One

The Valley of Unrest

"The change happened whilst I slept. Its details I shall never know; for my slumber, though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous. When at last I awakened, it was to discover myself half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire which extended about me in monotonous undulations as far as I could see…"

-Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft

A shocked whisper shattered the thick layer of silence that had descended upon the room.

"No."

Vegeta turned to find an exact duplicate of the woman in the bed staring back at him. He snarled and phased into the darkness before she could even blink. Her blue hair hung in crimped waves, tickling his cheek as he wrapped his arm tight around her neck. Her air supply was cut off and she was struggling to scream a warning to the other woman, who was still sleeping soundly.

He held his arm out from his side and a beam of light formed into a glowing saber. He quickly brought it up to her throat, just underneath his other forearm closest to cutting what he knew would bleed her dry in less than three minutes.

"Not a sound," he growled. She nodded her ascent and held back a whimper as he loosened his hold. "Who are you?" He demanded, lowering his knife. He couldn't kill her until he knew which one was his real target.

She was lucky; if he'd been Turles, she would have been drowning in a pool of her own blood, crumpled on the floor next to the dead body of the other woman. But he… He never killed for nothing. He never killed just because he could.

The moment she could get a breath, she screamed to her double on the bed.

"RUN!"

He grabbed at her and clenched his hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The other woman had already shaken herself awake and taken off running into the closet to his right. He swore and pulled a small pin out of his leg strap, sticking it into the struggling captive's neck. She immediately slumped out of his grip to the floor, and he let her go, moving as quickly as he could to follow the blue-haired escapee.

He entered the closet just as the back wall slid shut. He prepared another energy blast and aimed his palm into the darkness. With a yell, he released it, only to recoil when the residual heat waved toward him as it refused to penetrate the shielded door. The whole room shook violently, the clothing-free closet rod clattering noisily to the ground.

He ran to the bedroom window and wrenched it open, leaning out to see the white tail of a space pod shooting out into the night sky. Muttering an oath, he slammed the window shut again, shattering the glass pane with the strength of his anger. He stalked over to his unconscious prisoner, considering his options. If he killed her and she wasn't his true target, he would have his own conscience to answer to in killing someone without cause. If she was his target and he let her live to go chase down the other woman, Ambrose would feel no remorse in reporting his failure to Lord Frieza.

He shuddered. He would sooner die than face that evil androgynous lizard.

The light reflecting off the woman's pale skin brought his thoughts back to her. He had no way of knowing where the emergency pod had gone. The woman obviously would. What if the biggest threat to the empire was running loose all over the galaxy because he couldn't do his job? He was going to have to take her with him for interrogational purposes.

His face was grim as he lifted the woman bridal-style and thought of the words of Ambrose the last time he had neared failure.

"_Soon there will be nothing left for you anywhere, Vegeta. If you are banished, you will have nowhere else to go. I'd hate to kill you… But if you fail me, if you humiliate me with your cowardice, I will do it without remorse."_

He could not fail.

A/N: Sorry no B/V action yet, but I want the characters to be well developed first. No jumping in the sack in the first chapter for this fic! Thank you so much to Pearl3, Bulma Breif, and kurlyQT for being the first reviewers. Your reviews really inspired me to update! The next chapter is about nine pages long, so look for it in the next week or so. PLEASE R&R! They really are the food of inspiration.


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